FOR LOVE OF THE GAME?

The latest scandal, which has rocked the Football world and will continue to do so for a long time to come, is nothing short of expected. Football corruption has been going on for many years and will continue to do so, but what makes this latest scandal so universal is the sheer magnitude of it. Already we've heard that 15 countries in Europe are guilty of such shady dealings and, in due time, many more players and clubs will get caught or found out. So is it the question of "Has the game changed?" or "Has society change"?. In the last 3 years, our screens are littered with advertising by such gambling companies as TAB and Sportsbet. We can barely go 30 minutes without having some wanker or wankeress (usually a buxom young Blonde) telling us that before it reaches half time (or full time), we can win a nice lump sum of cash. The truth is, Gambling is Gambling. You can't Bet responsibly and you can't do it and still have moral swagger about you. It is what it is. Another cold hard truth is, Gambling destroys lives and families. When we were all young, we watched Sports for Love of the Game, whatever code it may have been. Now, Kids are conditioned to think that Sport is nothing more than a numbers/money game, where huge amounts of money is there for the taking. We now have people who regularly check there iPhones for Live Updates on the game. For a second, you could be fooled in to thinking they're following there favourite team, but in reality they usually put away there phone and say something like "Oh man, I''ve $150 on that team".

As tragic as it may be (this latest corruption scandal), It's nothing new as we've seen countries like Italy fall victim to these dirty deeds time and time again. And with the old turtle (Sepp Blatter) still at the helm of FIFA, this problem of match fixing will continue to go unresolved. Mr Blatter should have been out of a job after he had a hand (a big one at that) in the 2011 scandal, which saw Qatar bribe FIFA officials in to hosting the 2022 World Cup. Yet even though he and FIFA officials were found guilty, nothing was ever done about it. Qatar will still host the World Cup in 2022 and Sepp Blatter is still FIFA President. It seems as though FIFA is a law unto themselves, not having to answer to anyone or any higher authority. Can Sepp Blatter even spell the word "Accountability"? So in summing up, corruption is everywhere. From the guy putting down $50 at the Local Keno, to the FIFA officials presiding over our game of Football to the constant ads we saw in between Half time on TV. Is this the legacy we want to leave our kids?

Written by Alex Stilianos.